Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that visitor arrivals increased by 11.5% year-on-year to 2,376,840 as the Lunar New Year fall in February this year; same-day visitors (1,263,616) accounted for 53.2% of the total. In February 2013, visitors from Mainland China (1,508,599) increased by 17.4% year-on-year, with 719,055 coming from Guangdong Province, 58,427 from Zhejiang Province and 50,539 from Shanghai; Mainland visitors travelling under the Individual Visit Scheme (IVS) totalled 754,692. Moreover, visitors from Hong Kong (602,137) increased by 15.8%, while those from Taiwan, China (81,096) and the Republic of Korea (39,380) decreased by 2.7% and 13.3% respectively. Long-haul visitors from the US (12,105), Australia (6,571), and Canada (5,236) decreased by 6.6%, 21.4% and 4.6% respectively year-on-year, but those from the UK (4,348) and the Russian Federation (2,044) increased by 3.3% and 9.8% respectively. The average length of stay of visitors held stable from a year earlier, at 0.9 day in February 2013. Overnight and same-day visitors had an average stay of 1.8 days and 0.2 day respectively. In the first two months of 2013, visitor arrivals totalled 4,689,161, up by 2.1% year-on-year and same-day visitors accounted for 52.4% of the total. Mainland visitors (2,982,384) increased by 7.3% year-on-year, with 1,370,758 travelling under IVS; however, visitors from Hong Kong (1,111,963) and Taiwan, China (157,937) decreased by 4.0% and 6.5% respectively.
